MORE NEWS FROM LEGAL JUSTICE ON GAMEBIRD RELEASES

 LETS KEEP THE PETITIONS GOING. SUPPORT EVERY REQUEST TO ASK QUESTIONS IN SUPPORT OF OUR WILD-LIFE.

This is a straight lift of the first part of this letter. It is all about ‘gamebird’ releases. The name in itself is a joke - what does game actually mean to most people. It is now used to describe certain ‘meats’. That’s okay particularly when animals were hunted for food. And now we have the phrase ‘recreational shooting’. That’s a term for blasting defenseless birds out of the air with toxic lead shot. Such fun! That’s disgusting those last two words. I am not going along with ‘it’s fun to kill’

WILD JUSTICE. NEWSLETTER 54

 

1.  A very big thank you to all of you who signed the joint NGO petition on the Environment Bill highlighted in last week's newsletter of 1 March.  You helped to get, indeed you were instrumental in getting, the campaign off to a very strong start on Day 1.  The petition has now been signed by over 73,000 people and many of the larger NGOs will be engaging their members as time goes on. We, and you, were quick off the mark. If you haven't got around to signing the petition yet, but think you might, then please have a look - click here.  Thank you!

 

2. Apologies for this newsletter being a day later than we said it would be - we've been having discussions with other organisations about the DEFRA gamebird consultation and one of those took place yesterday afternoon.

 

3. The rest of this newsletter is briefing for those of you who may respond to DEFRA's consultation on gamebird releases. The closing date is Monday.  If you don't want to respond to the consultation then you can skip the rest of this newsletter, but we are asking for your help because there is plenty wrong with what DEFRA proposes.

 

3.1 Introductory remarks on what the consultation is all about: This consultation is necessary for DEFRA to regulate the release of non-native gamebirds, and they have to do that as a result of a legal challenge mounted by Wild Justice and settled in court last October. Because of our legal action, DEFRA must  take measures which will protect sites of nature conservation importance from the impacts of vast numbers of Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges released for recreational shooting.  And so obviously we think this consultation is important and so we would encourage you to respond if you can, please. Responding to a government consultation is not a bundle of laughs, and it may take you around 40 minutes to get it done.  Pro-shooting organisations are asking their supporters to respond to the consultation, and we are sure that many of them will - it would be very helpful if you could make your views known too and what follows is our attempt to help you to do that. Wild Justice will make its own, more technical, response to the consultation